RICHARD GRAHAM,

VISCOUNT PRESTON,

SECRETARY to James the second, after whose abdication he lived retired in the country, and published a translation of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius, of the Consolation of Philosophy, in five books. Lond. 17123, the second edition corrected, with a preface.

[This lord was the son and heir of sir George Graham, of Netherby, in Northumberland, and grandson of sir Richard Graham, in consideration of whose loyal attachment to Charles the first, as well as his own personal merit, he was raised to the dignity of the peerage of Scotland by the titles of lord Graham of Esk, and viscount Preston, in Haddingtonshire, by patent dated May 12, 16814. He became a com

⚫ [And created by him an English peer, but the patent did not pass and he therefore pleaded his privilege in vain, at the house of lords, and at the Old Bailey, when seized for high treason.]

3

" [First edition in 1695, 8vo, with Life of Boetius.]

4 In the patent, says Douglas, were particularly narrated the great fidelity, faithful services and sufferings of his grandfather for his attachment to the royal family, and his own constant loyalty, &c. Peerage, p. 561.

missioner of excise, and member for Windsor in 1685, and was appointed one of the secretaries of state for England in 1688, but was deprived of that office at the revolution. After the abdication of James the second, he was created a peer of England by the title of baron Esk; but the patent being dated at Versailles, it was rejected by the house of lords. In 1690 he was apprehended with several others for a conspiracy to restore king James, and was tried and condemned, but had his life granted. The date of his decease is not specified in the Peerages 5.

The second edition of his lordship's translation was thus entitled:

"Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius, of the Consolation of Philosophy. In five Books. Made English and illustrated with Notes, by the Right Hon. Richard, Lord Viscount Preston." 8vo.

The following passages are taken from the Preface: "A long retirement in the country having afforded me many hours of leisure, I considered that I could not employ them better than in giving an English dress to this part of the work of Boetius, intituled,

Of the Consolation of Philosophy.' Chaucer, the antient poet of our nation, was the first whom I find to have attempted a translation of this book into our tongue but that is now almost as unintelligible to

› William, viscount Preston, who appears to have been a clergyman, printed a " Speech made before the Society of Antigallicans, at their anniversary Meeting, May 3, 1753," as I am informed by Mr. Reed.

the English reader as the original is :-the alterations of our language (which he is said before any of our countrymen to have endeavoured to refine) having been very many and great since the times in which he flourished. I have also seen two other translations; the one of them published in the year 1609, the other only of four books, in that of 1674, imprinted at Oxford. And though I shall not censure either of them, I may modestly say, that I see nothing in them which may hinder me from offering one to the publick which may be more correct.

"He from whom fortune hath withdrawn her kinder influences, and upon whom those who (under God) govern the world, do not think fit to shine, whatever his merits may have been before, will find himself exposed to all the injuries which his superiours, equals, or inferiours shall think good to heap upon him. But these are the ordinary turns of Providence, to which all men ought to submit; as those who are endowed with piety and good sense do with willingness, ever making the right use of them, without being surprised at them: because they know that that happiness is only to be found within themselves, which others so anxiously hope and seek for from foreign objects."

To the metrical portions of Boetius, which his lordship rendered in verse, he has in some places made additions of his own, with a desire to relieve the translation from being flat and insipid. The desire was laudable, but the versification appears to be rather inadequate to the accomplishment of his purpose.]

GEORGE MACKENZIE,

EARL OF CROMERTY,

A PERSON eminent for his learning, and for his abilities as a statesman and general, of which last profession he was reckoned, at his death in 1714, one of the oldest in Europe. He contributed to the restoration of Charles the second, by whom he was made one of the senators of the college of justice, clerk register of the privy-council, and justice-general. James the second made him a baron and viscount; queen Anne, secretary of state and an earl.

Of his lordship's writing I have

"A Vindication of Robert, the third King of Scotland, from the Imputation of Bastardy; by the clear Proof of Elizabeth Mure (Daughter to Sir Adam Mure, of Rowallan) her being the first lawful Wife of Robert the Second, then Steward of Scotland, and Earl of Strathern; by George, Viscount of Tarbat, &c. Clerk to his Majesty's Councils, Registers, and Rolls, 16952." In the dedication to the king (who, by the date,

[A copy of this book occurs in Bibl. Westiana, num. 3649, whence it appears to have been printed at Edinburgh in 4to.]

should be king William, but who, by his lordship's telling him that he had presented his proofs to him many years before in writing, I should suspect to be king James) he says, that all the crowned heads in Europe are concerned in this vindication. The point indeed has been much litigated, but is of little consequence, except to those who are zealous about a point of so little consequence as hereditary right; yet as difficult to be ascertained as another obscure topic on which his lordship employed his labours in the following

Synopsis Apocalyptica; or, a short and plain Explication and Application of Daniel's Prophecy and of St. John's Revelation, in Consent with it, and consequential to it; by G. E. of C. tracing in the Steps of the admirable Lord Napier 3, of Merchiston." Edinburgh, 1708. It is dedicated to his daughter Margaret Weems, countess of Northesk and Ethie, by her lady

* [Napier's Plaine Discovery of the Revelation of St. John, was printed at Edinburgh in 1645. That illustrious man, says Mr. Irving, seems to have paid some attention to the study of poetry. In his curious Treatise he has versified certain notable prophecies out of the books of Sibylla, and has prefaced his work with a metrical address to Antichrist. Scotish Poets, vol. ii. p. 102. His learned son Archibald was made a peer by Charles the first, but does not claim introduction as an author.]